House prices have jumped nearly £7,000 in a month
Spring home buyers are facing the highest ever prices demanded by sellers, with the average price tag on a home having jumped by nearly £7,000 in the space of a month.
Across Britain, the increase of £6,733 or 2.1 per cent monthon-month pushed average seller asking prices to a new record high of £327,797 in April, Rightmove said.
This was more than £4,000 higher than a previous record set last October.
The average asking price for larger “top of the ladder” family-sized properties jumped by more than £18,000 monthon-month, from £571,983 in March to £590,293 in April.
Top of the ladder homes are made up of houses and flats with five bedrooms or more as well as four-bedroom detached properties.
Properties generally are being snapped up by buyers at a record speed, Rightmove said.
In the first two weeks of April, estate agents were marking homes as sold in 45 days on average and nearly one in four (23 per cent) properties that had a sale agreed in March had been on the market for less than a week. Both these figures were the highest that Rightmove had ever recorded.
Rightmove said the “mass market” of two-and three-bedroom semi-detached homes tend to be selling the fastest, with30percentofthosethatare being marked as sold by agents having been on the market for less than a week.
The recent extension of a stamp duty holiday, the return ofsomelow-depositmortgages, optimism over the coronavirus vaccinationrolloutandashortage of properties for sale have pusheduphousepricemomentum, Rightmove said.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data, said: “This is only the second time over the past five years that prices have increased by over 2 per cent in a month, so it's a big jump, especially bearing in mindthatthelockdownrestrictions are still limiting the population's movements and activities.”
Mr Bannister continued: “Housing market activity remainshighinscotlandwhere there has been no extension to the land and buildings transaction tax holiday which has now cometoanend,whichsuggests that the same could happen when the tax holidays start to come to an end in England and Wales from the end of June.
“Theserisingpriceswillcause some buyer affordability challenges,asmortgagelendingcriteria are still constrained, and the record low available stock proportion will make it diffi
cult for buyers to find the right property.
“Being able to act quickly when the right one does come along is vital, so having both a mortgage agreed in principle and your own property already sold subject to contract will helptogetyoutothefrontofthe queue if you're looking to buy this spring.”
Richard Freshwater, director at estate agent Cheffins, said: “Onaverage,everyhouseweput on the market at the moment sees over 40 requests for viewings, all from buyers who are in the position to move.
“The amazing thing as well is that this level of interest is throughout the market at all price levels, with demand for large country homes at the same rate as the more affordable, smaller city-based options.”